Blake Morrow – The Man Who Won The Nemesis Auction

Blake Morrow is an art director working in Canada. Here is his website. Easy to find, I just searched for Blake Morrow. But odds are, very shortly, that’ll be harder to do. Because Blake Morrow is the $8,400 winner of the charity prize to have the hero cop character in Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s Nemesis comic named after himself.

I asked Blake abouit the decision – firstly his interests in comics, and in Mark Millar, Steve McNiven and Nemesis in particular.

I grew up reading comic books, and they’ve always inspired me creatively. I’ve been fan of Millar’s work for awhile. “Ultimate X-Men” pretty much opened me up to the world of Marvel Comics in general, as before I was (and still am) a pretty dedicated DC man. “Wanted” and the flow of Civil War’s main issues were a great ride.

Steve McNiven’s art is stellar. I found myself just staring at his panels after initially reading each issue of Civil War, just taking in the layouts and angles. And his “Dark Tower” work is poetic.
Both dudes combine for some great storytelling. I didn’t know what Nemesis was about until I heard about the auction online. Once I read the blurb and saw the art, I was committed.

Aside from charitable reasons, why did you want to win this bid?

Let me first say this auction was genius. There is no way I would have jumped into the ring to bid if it was just about the name. Seriously. I wouldn’t have been able to justify parting with that cash if it wasn’t going towards a good cause for some kids that already deal with enough. I’d like to think that others involved in the creation of comic books and creative media in general would take note of this as a future means of creative fund-raising opportunities. Imagine if the industry dedicated character names with money going towards organizations like The Heroes Fund, for instance? Or if you could put money towards a cancer charity for being the name of a minor “character of the week” in a CSI or Law & Order episode?

Once I looked at the ebay page I thought “I could win this. Passing my name onto a noble character would be really cool”. So I went for it.

Millar could have been stuck with a really crappy name but he did it anyway. That’s ballsy, and I respect that. I’m glad he liked my name and didn’t feel screwed!

When I google you now, I get your company website, your past jobs, that kind of thing. Basically career stuff. Are you worried that all this may be wiped away, Dave Lizewski-style, if the comic gets made into a movie?

I think there’s a few other Blake Morrow’s out there, so the pool is already a bit murky. I assume most people won’t put two and two together with Nemesis if they are searching for the real me. If I was an accountant or a social worker I might be concerned about keeping a focused, moderately calm online persona of myself, but I’m a creative; it’s almost a given that I’d be into something like this, so I think current and future clients wouldn’t be scared away or confused. Now if I was the name for Nemesis himself, maybe I’d be a bit more worried…

Seeing as you’ve brought up the movie, can I just say here that I’d make myself totally available for a bit part for the eventual film? Being able to say “yes sir” to the hero cop with my name while in full swat gear would seriously kick ass. Just putting it out there.

Do you wish in any way now that you’d waited until Nemesis himself was being auctioned or do you prefer being the supercop?

Ha. Nope. Bad guys are fun to watch and live vicariously through, but it’s the good guys who make this world worth living in. They challenge us to aim higher, you know? I checked in with Millar’s camp after the auction to know for sure the type of character I was attaching my name to; while getting a few tidbits of his character arc, I was pretty much sold on this dude. You want him in your corner. Nemesis may rewrite what it means to be bad, so I’m cool if someone else has that honor. I’m a-ok playing the good guy.

Do you have any worries in case your character dies a horrible death? I speak as someone who’s been killed off in comics a number of times…

Ha! How have you been killed? Wacky.

I was electrocuted. It was nasty.

I’m rooting for the cop’s survival; if he ends up dying, I doubt it will be pointless, so I’m cool with that. That said, if McNiven draws my face in chunks of clumpy pizza death, that could be a bit… unsettling? But also really funny.